The Influence of the Media on Antisocial Behavior Essay

10. We have to mindful of the constraints and dangers of such a short and physical experiment. The experiment is short term and fast paced and as such cannot be used to explain long-term effects on aggression. We have to also be mindful of the potential physical and psychological harm the children may face. For example, some of the children might not have ever played a violent video game and doing so could cause some psychological harm. Children are a protected population so we will need to make sure that they are as safe as possible.

There is a strong agreement among American society that violence in the country is on the rise. It is easy to see why this is a strong argument among the American people, especially because of the rising popularity of violent video games and television programs. However, as these violent video games and television shows are creating their own place in our society, the reports of violence among children are escalating. This correlation has been studied extensively in the scientific community in an attempt to discover whether media violence does negatively impact children but there has yet to be a consensus. There is a split between those that believe that children are becoming more violent because they are exposed to violent media and

Violent media has been proven time and time again over the past 60 years to cause increased aggression in children and young adults. The long term and short term exposure to violent media has been shown to cause “increased feelings of hostility, expectations that others will behave aggressively, desensitization to the pain of others, and increased likelihood of interacting and responding to others with violence” (Committee on Public Education). One of the most famous experiments done on the subject was done in 1961 by the psychologist Albert Bandura at Stanford University. In this experiment children between the ages of three and six were put in a playroom containing a many activities and toys (Cherry). One of those toys was a bobo doll; a 5 foot tall inflatable doll. An adult would enter and either play with the child from a complete ten minutes, the control group, or at some point during those ten minutes begin beating up the doll, the experimental group. They would also say things such as “pow” and “he keeps coming back for more” while attacking it (Cherry).

Many people still have several questions they want answered, such as, is media violence actually affecting children or are children already prone to violence drawn to media violence? Some experts have shown short and long-term negative effects occur in children from watching violent media; however another group of experts have shown that media violence is only one of many risk factors leading to aggression developed in children. These two groups need to continue more research and go beyond that to find true solutions. Nevertheless, no sources were found to say that media violence has no influence on the increase in modern culture’s violent actions. The key to discovering the true correlation between violence in children and media violence is to continue research until a solution is

Savage and Yancey had noticed that while there had been numerous studies on whether video games increase aggression to their peers, no one had tested whether or not they affected criminal tendencies in teens and young adults. After exposing them to a violent television show, the kids were made to take a test to see if violent tendencies were displayed later. Once it was all said and done the results pointed to there not being any correlation with criminality and violent media consummation. (Savage, Yancey 16-17)

In Brad Bushman’s and Rowell Huesmann’s Article Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine journal, they believe the violent media in video games, tv shows, music, and movies, are affecting behavior in children and adults. Bushman and Huesmann believe that all the violence that has made a more popular appearance in today’s culture is causing for adults and children to be more prone to aggression. They hypothesized that the long-term effects would be greater in children and the short-term effects would be greater in adults, and discovered their hypotheses to be correct. Other articles, such as Beth Stein’s If Violent Video Games are Harmless Fun,

Huesmann and Taylor then begin to define violence in its various forms and stages. This seemed to be slightly redundant and useless information since it is obvious and is not specific to the topic in question. The authors then begin to obtain the reader’s attention as they begin to describe the issue faced by the youth having unlimited access to violence on television. A study done on children is then mentioned, where half of the group watches a violent movie and the other half a non-violent movie. The two groups of kids are then combined for a hockey game where levels of aggressive behavior are observed and compared. As expected, the research indicated that the kids who watched the violent movie demonstrated more violent behavior.

The results of the study were that it was possible to predict aggression based on media exposure and that it significantly increased aggression. The study suggests that the more educational media exposure there is to children the more aggression is shown.

For a child, almost any type of conflict, such as a heated discussion on a radio talk show or between two experts during a newscast, may seem as aggressive as two comic book characters throwing anvils. As of yet, we do not have a clear explanation of what causes violence and aggression in our youth, whether we analyze media content or explore the everyday aggressive behavior that may cause violent behavior, Individual studies define these notions in a lot of different ways; Thus, the rules of the game are constantly changing for those who try to analyze the situation as a whole. The difficulty in quantifying aggression and violence in ways that make it almost impossible to answer the following question: "Does violence in the media cause people to commit acts of violence? "

The experiment had fourth and fifth graders watch a violent movie. Another group of older children were supposed to watch the fourth and fifth graders from another room and they were to report to adults if anything bad happened. After the movie, the children played with each other. At first they played together quietly, but then they started to get loud and chaotic. The children had suddenly become aggressive for unknown reasons and began to fight each other. The children were so aggressive that a camera was broken during their dispute. Part of the experiment documented how long it took the older children watching from another room to report to adults. The older children waited a significant amount of time before reporting to an adult. This experiment is important to note because in "The Influence of Media Violence on Youth by Anderson Craig, argues that “it must be recognized that the firmest evidence about the effects of media violence, or any other presumed causal influence, on aggression is provided by true experiments”(Craig et al.). The research shows that children violent media can cause children to think aggressively and the violence can become problematic if it includes

The purposes of this project were to examine TV violence and analyze how TV violence may influence children’s aggression. In Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, results showed that children who observed aggressive models toward the Bobo doll were more likely to imitate that behavior than children who observed non-aggressive models. Male children were more likely to imitate the model if they were the same-sex compared to female children. Male children displayed more physical aggression compared to female children. The females were likely to show physical aggression when they witnessed an opposite-sex model perform in an aggressive model group. However, females were likely to show verbal aggression when they witnessed a same-sex model perform in

In conclusion, violent programs on TV lead to aggressive and violent behavior by the adolescents who watch

          Due to violence on television, children become less sensitive to that pain and suffering of others or to become more aggressive to others. It also makes children more fearful to the world around them. (Abelard 1) Viewing habits of children observed for many decades deduced that violence on TV is associated with aggressive behavior, more than poverty, race, or parental behavior. It also reported that a TV show contains about 20 acts of violence an hour.

As evidence has shown, children view many violent scenes while watching television, movies, or playing video games, but the question still remains: What psychological effect does violence in the media have on children? Research over the past 10 years has consistently shown that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life aggression (Strasburger 129). Violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the various programs. Of course, not all children who watch television, or movies, or play video games develop aggressive behavior. However, there is a strong correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior. A study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, examined how children's television viewing practices are related to aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that children who reported watching greater amounts of television per day had higher levels of violent behavior than children who reported lesser amounts of television viewing (Singer 1041). Witnessing violence is an important determining factor in violent behavior. The media serves as a means for children to witness violence. According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children imitate behavior that they see on television, especially if the person performing the behavior is attractive or if the

is indeed one of the prime factors contributing to the increase in violent and aggressive